‘Boruto’ Shows Off Shikadai’s Skill

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has finally kicked off the Chunin Exams arc first seen in Boruto: Naruto the Movie, and fans have been loving every episode so far especially as it heads into the solo tournament of the exams.

The first round of the solo tournament has begun, and while his skills have been justly teased in the past Shikadai has never quite shown his full capability. Luckily, fans got to see just that as he fought Yodo of the Hidden Sand.

Mirroring Shikamaru’s battle against the Hidden Sand’s Temari in the original Naruto series, Shikadai and Yodo was the first battle of the third round. Like his father, he used strategy to use his shadow jutsu well but was given a tough time by Yodo, who was able to dodge his jutsu at every turn.

But after a few failed attempts, he figures out that Yodo actually has highly sensitive ears and has been using the sound of his movements to follow his jutsu and dodge it. He learns this after taking one of her special jutsu head on, which hits the opponent with high frequency sound waves (calling back to the techniques of the Hidden Sound ninja).

Using this quickly gained knowledge, much like his father had experienced during his Chunin Exam trial, Shikadai was able to eventually overcome Yodo thanks to a manipulation of sound into order to trap her in his shadow jutsu. Yodo then surrenders, which is a good flip of Shikamaru surrendering to Temari way back when.

Temari herself even remembers her fight with Shikamaru as Sakura and Ino callback to her heritage assume she’s feeling conflicted by her son and her home. Hilariously, Temari is in full support of her son over everything else. The same goes for Shikamaru, who embarrasses himself when he audibly cheers for his son’s victory in the face of another village’s defeat.

Now Shikadai is set to battle Boruto, and Boruto’s going to have to try his best in order to defeat someone as intelligent and skilled as Shikdai has proven to be on his own.

For those unfamiliar with Boruto’s predecessor Naruto, it has quite a storied history. Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, the series ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows Naruto, a young ninja with a sealed demon within him that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and featuring the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.